Our home was built in 1954, and is a Florida ranch style home. We have about a two-foot overhanging soffit with trusses that show and with tongue and groove under whatever that’s called. Sorry, I don’t know the proper terms…

I had my roof redone. And nails have come through the plywood and show all over the attic and all the way around the soffit overhang on the outside.… Some are just the tips of nail that have come through the tongue and groove and some larger nails come through the trusses and have spilt the wood…My husband said this is normal, but it wasn’t that way before. Should the roofer repair all these nail holes?

Is this something that's only visible in the attic where you see the unfinished plywood, or is there a finished surface that's visible outside (or even inside your finished home) where these are showing?
–
BMitch♦Jan 8 '13 at 12:13

3 Answers
3

The plywood of your roof is typically not as thick as your standard galvanized steel roofing nail, so it is expected for nails to show through this in your attic. The plywood can and is expected to take a bit of damage over time and this is okay as long as the shingle has something firm to hold itself down onto.

Over time if the plywood is too damaged to properly hold down new shingles or becomes too dangerous to walk on safely then a roofer should be able to identify such compromised plywood board and replace it as needed.

What is worrying about your question is that you specified that the roofing nails have split and damaged the roof trusses. Standard roofing nails should not be long or thick enough to split or crack structurally sound dimensional lumber.

If this is what happened then you may have a problem unrelated to the quality of the roofing job. Your home is over 50 years old in a warm wet climate, so you should inspect for a number of different problems.

Dryrot

Termites

Carpenter Ants

If you have any of the following indications of current or past damage to any of the three items then that would explain split, cracked or damaged roof trusses during a typical roofing job.

On another note: The soffit typically fits into a groove that is known as J Channel when installed on a roof overhang. The roof overhang is typically MUCH too tall for any roofing nails to reach soffit. I imagine instead you might be seeing a roofing nails perforating the fascia, which can be a sign of a sloppy rushed job. Without pictures though we can't tell that for sure.

I think the question refers to nails showing through the matched roof boards (sheathing) that span the rafter tails, not the rafters themselves ????
–
shirlock homesJan 8 '13 at 13:41

@shirlockhomes She mentioned splitting trusses because of roof nails so unless she incorrectly used the word truss to describe something else, this is how I interpreted it.
–
maple_shaftJan 8 '13 at 13:58

I reread it and it looks like there are both! lol
–
shirlock homesJan 8 '13 at 16:12

Thanks. I'm lucky, the attic looks fine. Thanks for sharing.You are right, it's the overhang on the outside of the house that I really concerned about.
–
user9976Jan 10 '13 at 12:56

The lifting force generated by high winds over a roof can pull 3/4" nails out and peel off large sections of roofing, they used 1 1/4" or longer to ensure penetration through all the shingle layers, underlayment and deep enough into the sheeting to hold up to this abuse.

Unless you live in the attic, you have no worries. The heads are covered by the shingles so they don't cause leaks.

A neighbor down the street from us had the roof on his garage end up laying in the street from a severe thunderstorm downdraft specifically because of this. It's kind of interesting finding a large 20x40 section of roofing laying in the street with underlay tar paper all over the place. The tar strips on the shingles held quite well. The nails didn't hold. The wind gust was so strong it bent the 70' sycamore in my front yard nearly double and broke off several sweetgum trees.

In the lower areas with exposed boards, the roofing contractor should have used shorter nails or staples in that area. Exposed nail points would not be acceptable to me. They should be clipped off flush to prevent possible injury if working under the eves, such as painting etc. The exposed nails are also going to be susceptible to rusting over time even it they are galvanized.

Thanks. This is where my true concern really is. It's the exposed areas on the outside of the house. In 50 years, the house has been reroofed a number of times I'm sure and this hasn't happened before that I can see.... so these nails can just be clipped off flush with the wood and painted? - Thanks!
–
user9976Jan 10 '13 at 12:53

yes they can be clipped and painted.
–
shirlock homesJan 10 '13 at 13:29